Even a brilliant autumn day can't compete with the glorious natural light that illuminates the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary just days before its rededication.

After a two-year, $32 million restoration, the light again flows through the basilica's skylights and sparkling, translucent window panes. The interior space is a soaring masterpiece of pendentives, domes and barrel vaults, but the light -- pure and elemental -- calls to mind the simplicity of a country church or Quaker meetinghouse.

It is consummately American light, the kind rarely, if ever, found in Europe's famed cathedrals, where stained-glass windows and richly ornamented interiors tend to create a mysterious aura of darkness.

Two hundred years after the cornerstone for the cathedral was laid, the light that has been liberated from layers of paint and stained glass again animates the vision shared by John Carroll, the country's first bishop, and Benjamin Henry Latrobe, the architect of the cathedral.

Throughout the space, neoclassical grandeur blends with American pragmatism. Latrobe designed the neat grids of plaster rosettes that decorate the ceiling to absorb sound in the cavernous cathedral. Against the basilica's breathtaking domed ceiling, they call to mind the ornamental, yet orderly sensibility of an American quilt. With their pronounced stigmas and sunbeamlike petals, the rosettes, despite their pastel hues, may also remind Marylanders of black-eyed Susans.

The depiction of an integrated heaven with black and white angels in new paintings of the Assumption of Mary and the Ascension of Jesus adorning two saucer domes show that over the centuries, cathedrals may be continuous works in progress that reflect social advancement within the church.

I visited this Basilica in Baltimore once years ago when I was a kid. I thought it was very impressive at the time. I'm not sure what these restorations did to the feeling of the building though.

The fact that the article said that the Basilica now "calls to mind the simplicity of a country church or Quaker meetinghouse," makes me kind of nervous. I like lots of natural light and all...but still.

Click on the above link. The paper has extensive graphics and information on the restoration + links to those involved. Note that Fr. Dr. Richard Vosko was NOT on the renovation team for this Cathedral ... and that IS good news!

6
posted on 11/03/2006 8:21:09 AM PST
by NYer
(Apart from the cross, there is no other ladder by which we may get to Heaven. St. Rose of Lima)

The interior you saw was the result of redecoration done during the 1940s. It wasn't bad, although some things (like blocking the skylights in the dome) were done for the sake of cutting costs rather than expressing any particular architectural style. The interior wood was all dark, and the walls were painted in fairly dark colours. The result was nice, but not really in keeping with the original "Federal Style" of architecture. The 1940s pews were all removed, and sold dirt cheap to a new Parish in Fairfax County, VA. This restoration, IMO, properly expresses what the original architects were trying to do. It matches in style such edifices as the US Capitol, while still being recognisably a Catholic Church.

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